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New Research Finds Same-Sex Experiences are Rising in America
A new study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found that more Americans are engaging in same-sex sexual relationships, including an increasing number of adults who say they’ve had both male and female partners. The study also found that an overwhelming percentage of Americans say they are accepting of and open to this trend.
“A team of social scientists found that the percentage of men reporting male sexual partners had nearly doubled from 1990 to 2014, and the percentage of women reporting same-sex experiences had more than doubled during the same period,” The Washington Post reported. “Between 1973 and 1990, the percentage of adults who believed ‘sexual relations between two adults of the same sex [was] not wrong at all’ only rose from 11 percent to 13 percent. But by 2014, 49 percent of all adults and 63 percent of millennials expressed tolerance of these relationships.”
The Post reports that the percentage of survey respondents who had all same-sex partners didn’t increase significantly between 1990 and 2014, but the percentage of adults with both male and female partners increased from 3.1 percent to 7.7 percent.
Recent surveys have shown that bisexual people are the largest group within the LGBT community: half of people who identify as LGB identify as bisexual. However, bisexuals are far less likely than their gay and lesbian peers to be out, citing stereotypes, skepticism and pressure to “choose” one sexual orientation as reasons for staying in the closet.
HRC Foundation, in partnership with BiNet USA, the Bisexual Organizing Project, and the Bisexual Resource Center, released “A Resource Guide to Coming Out As Bisexual” earlier this year to help bisexual people of all ages who are contemplating the important step of coming out. The guide features the inspirational words of bisexual people who have come out and found community and fulfillment, as well as advice about the risks and rewards of coming out, and strategies for navigating real life coming out situations – from telling family and friends, to assessing whether a workplace would be supportive and safe.
Read more about the study here and for more resources for bisexual people, including HRC Foundation’s Supporting and Caring for Our Bisexual Youth report and Health Disparities Among Bisexual People, click here.
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